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History

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Intent

At St Matthew’s C of E Primary and Nursery Academy the principle aim of history is that through the teaching of history skills, knowledge and understanding, pupils learn about significant people, events and places from both the recent and more distant past. They learn about change and continuity in the local area, in Britain and in other parts of the world. They look at history from various perspectives including, political, economic, technological, scientific, social, religious, and cultural. Children think critically about fact and opinion and use different sources of information to help them investigate the past both in depth and in an overview, using dates and historical vocabulary to describe events, people and developments. Where possible, use is made of the local environment and community, and children learn that the past can be represented and interpreted in different ways. 

In line with the 2013 National Curriculum: History Programme of Study, St Matthew’s C of E Primary and Nursery Academy aims to ensure that all pupils: 

  • Become increasingly critical and analytical thinkers 
  • Possess a secure understanding of the chronology of the British Isles and other import periods of History 
  • To discover links and connections to the History they learn and the wider community and locality 
  • Further their knowledge and explanations of change and continuity over time with regards to the history of the British Isles and other societies and epochs 
  • Differentiate between source types and explain how interpretations in History may differ 
  • Draw on similarities and differences within given time frames and across previously taught History 
  • Enquire in to Historical themed questions and form their own opinions and interpretation of the past 
  • gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of key vocabulary such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ 

Implementation

The curriculum is led and overseen by the history lead as part of our humanities team. As history lead, a regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and review and the celebration of good practice will contribute to the ongoing commitment to evolve and improve further. 

The teaching, learning and sequencing of the history curriculum is as follows: 

  • The ‘Connected Curriculum’ is implemented to ensure coverage and progression in all skills relating to history. Moreover, there is an opportunity within each session to revisit historical skills that need further consolidation and to use new knowledge to enforce prior skills. 
  • In Key Stage 1 the units start with the present, the local or the known before then looking back. This is normally followed up by casting forward. For example, children begin by looking at a current great British explorer. The study of this allows children to link it to exploring in the past before the modern technology that the children take for granted and then to cast ahead to consider what exploring might be like in the future. 
  • In lower Key Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4), during the years where children are developing and cementing their understanding of how time periods relate to each other, the units are organised chronologically. By upper Key Stage 2 children are not only expected to link areas of their current learning to other areas studied but also to link what they are studying to what else is happening around the world at the same time. For example, when studying the Shang Dynasty, children will make comparisons with the nature of the artefacts that remain from other contemporaneous Bronze Age societies elsewhere in the world, most notably in Britain and in Ancient Egypt. 
  • The use of timelines will part of teaching in KS2 where a class timeline will be created along with an individual timeline given to all pupils which will allow them to see how their topic of study fits with others. 

Progression is set out in order to build and develop the following: 

Key Skills: 

1. Chronological understanding and knowledge of time including, the characteristic features of periods, the use of language of time periods and the passing of time and the use of timelines 

2. Historical enquiry, the use of evidence and communicating history 

3. Interpreting history which includes explaining what they think and understanding that historians and people in history have a different point of view 

Key Concepts: 

4. Continuity and change (contrast) during and between periods 

5. Cause and consequence (why something happened and what impact did it then have) 

6. Similarities and differences within a period: social diversity including beliefs and attitudes 

7. Significant events and people 

  • Lessons will develop long term memory by allowing for repetition of learning within the year and year on year. This will be further increased with regular retrieval low stakes testing. 
  • The use of knowledge organisers including schemas are to aid teachers in planning their knowledge and skills and students in understanding the expectations by the end of the unit. 
  • Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary is taught within the unit and reinforced throughout the year. 
  • SMSC is threaded through the history curriculum to link history to their lives and explore their heritage and cultural capital of the locality and the country. 

Impact

  • Children will become increasingly critical and analytical within their historical thinking, making informed and balanced judgements based on their and others’ knowledge of the past. 
  • Children will become increasingly aware of how historical events have shaped the world that they currently live in. 
  • They will develop have a better understanding of local, national and world history. 
  • Children will develop enquiry skills to pursue their own interests within a topic. 
  • Where applicable, children will have encountered or participated in high-quality visits/visitors to further appreciate the impact of history. 
  • Children are able to retain prior-learning and explicitly make connections between what they have previously learned and what they are currently learning. 
  • Children will confidently use the language of history. 

Note on history in EYFS

History is encompassed in the EYFS through Understanding of the world which includes People and Communities, The World and Technology. At St.Matthew’s, children begin and continue to develop an understanding of history through topic based learning. In addition, we encourage children to reflect on their own special events and express their own past experiences. Children have a leaning environment enriched with topic based historical resources to enhance children’s senses and curiosity and to incorporate into their imaginative play. A variety of themes help children to develop an understanding of their own identity, similarities and differences in both appearance and cultural routines. Furthermore, PSED allows children to discuss with each other their feelings and understanding of the world through their own experience. In addition, the Characteristics of Effective Learning within the EYFS, encourage children to explore their world around them. By engaging with objects and environments that they see, teachers encourage children to explore, question and develop curiosity about the history and significance surrounding them. 

February 2024 - Progression document: our curriculum organisation and progression map is currently being reviewed in order to make amendments to the vocabulary covered within it.

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